1 Mln Displaced by Mosul Anti-Daesh Operation – Intl Migration Organization

More than one million people were forced to leave their homes in the Iraqi city of Mosul because of the operation against the Islamic State (banned in Russia and numerous other countries), and four in every five still cannot return, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday.

GENEVA (Sputnik) – According to the IOM data, collected since October 2016 and published on Thursday, some 1.34 million people were forced to migrate in that time period, and over 820,000 still have not come back to their homes.

The Mosul operation by the Iraqi armed forces began in October 2016, supported by the US-led coalition. The Iraqi Federal Police said earlier in the week it surrounded Daesh militants still remaining in Mosul in a district of no more than 500 square meters (3,230 square feet).

Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi declared the recapture of Al Nuri Grand Mosque in Mosul an end to the so-called Islamic caliphate, in the lvery locale where the formation of the Daesh was first announced. The coalition forces spokesman Ryan Dillon said the full liberation of Mosul might be only a matter of days.